Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
N’Djamena (Agenzia Fides)- As the European Union prepares to send peacekeepers to Chad and the Central African Republic (see Fides 27/9/2007), international observers question the impact of agreements which the government of N’Djamena and four Chad rebel groups signed recently in Libya.
Whereas the Chad government says the agreement is definitive the rebels call is an “framework agreement ” which should prepare the ground for definitive agreements.
The agreement includes a cease-fire until the end of October, an amnesty, the entry of rebels in government and the integration of their combatants in the regular army. However still to be settled are the modalities of the application of the agreements, especially procedures to disarm the rebels. On this point the positions of government and rebels differ. The former insists that the rebels are disarmed in their bases, inside Sudan, whereas the rebels say their troops are in Chad (only the leaders are in Sudan) and must be integrated into the army without giving up their weapons. Another point to be agreed is the sum of money to give rebels who choose to be demobilised instead of integrated into the army.
Libya says it will continue to mediate the talks to reach an agreement as soon as possible. After signing an agreement with the three principal opposition parties in exile in Benin yesterday evening, 8 October, the Chad government seems to want to continue talks. The agreement reached includes a general amnesty for members of political parties, “except for those guilty of serious violation of common law”, and the participation in public affairs of exiled opposition parties and the integration in public administration of young cadres coming from the opposition.
The principal opposition parties boycotted presidential elections in 2006, won by outgoing president Idriss Deby, who had come to power in December 1990 after overthrowing the previous government. Various rebels groups in the east of the country threaten national stability and have forced some of the local people to flee their homes. The crisis in east Chad is connected with that in Darfur and in the north of Central African Republic. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 9/10/2007 righe 30 parole 397)
